American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2014, 5, 2574-2581 Published Online July 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.517271 Reproductive Biology of Sargassum thunbergii (Fucales, Phaeophyceae) Zhourui Liang, Feijiu Wang*, Xiutao Sun, Wenjun Wang, Fuli Liu Key Laboratory of Sustainable Development of Marine Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, China Email: *[email protected] Received 12 May 2014; revised 25 June 2014; accepted 17 July 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Sargassum thunbergii is an economically important brown alga that is used as a perferred food for sea cucumber in China. However, reports on the reproductive biology of S. thunbergii are limited. This study observed the characteristics of mature receptacles. The effects of different tempera- tures, light intensities, and photoperiods on the egg release of mature S. thunbergii receptacles were investigated. A liquid-phase oxygen electrode system was used to obtain light saturation and light compensation points of egg and young thalli of S. thunbergii. Results showed that tempera- ture was the key factor for the egg release of mature receptacles. The conditions most conducive to egg release were 20˚C to 23˚C temperature and 50 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 to 200 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 light intensity. In addition, the light saturation and compensation points of unfertilized eggs or young thalli at 2 d or 3 d postfertilization ranged from 90 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 to 120 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 and 14 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 to 22 μmol photons m−2∙s−1, respectively. The combined results provide a reference for the sporeling culture of S. thunbergii. Keywords Sargassum thunbergii, Reproductive Biology, Temperature, Light 1. Introduction Sargassum thunbergii (Mertens ex Roth) Kuntze of the class Phaeophyceae, order Fucales, and family Sargas- saceae is a commercially important seaweed with excellent properties. S. thunbergii is the best natural food for the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka) in China because of its nutritional value [1] [2]. The de- *Corresponding author. How to cite this paper: Liang, Z.R., Wang, F.J., Sun, X.T., Wang, W.J. and Liu, F.L. (2014) Reproductive Biology of Sargassum thunbergii (Fucales, Phaeophyceae). American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 2574-2581. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.517271 Z. R. Liang et al. mand and economic values of S. thunbergii have rapidly increased in recent years because of the increasing de- velopment in sea cucumber culture. Sargassum resource is heavily destroyed and scarce in Northern China be- cause of the massive harvest of natural populations. S. thunbergii production has two pathways, namely, sexual reproduction and vegetative reproduction via rhi- zoid. Sexual reproduction is the primary approach to resolve the sporeling resource shortage of S. thunbergii. Therefore, studies on the reproductive biology of S. thunbergii are indispensable to rehabilitate the natural re- source and promote the sporeling production of this seaweed in China [3]. Previous studies on S. thunbergii mainly focused on ecology, active ingredient, taxonomy, resource investigation, nutritional analysis, and popula- tion genetic structure [4]-[11]. Only a few experiments were carried out on the early development of germling [12] [13]. Moreover, little is known about the reproductive biology of S. thunbergii at the very early sexual de- velopmental stages. Specific issues that need investigations include the characteristics of receptacles and con- ceptacle ostiole, the influencing factors of egg release, and the light saturation and compensation points of ferti- lized eggs of S. thunbergii. The present study observed the detailed reproductive characteristics of mature receptacles of S. thunbergii and investigated the effects of environmental factors on the egg release of mature receptacles. This study aims to provide theoretical support for the sporeling culture of S. thunbergii (Figure 1). 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Field Sampling and Microscopy S. thunbergii samples were collected from an intertidal zone in Taiping Bay (36˚05'N, 120˚35'E), Qingdao, Chi- na on 10 July 2011. Real-time observation to the production and development of S. thunbergii was performed all year round. Parental male and female plants were packed in plastic bags and transported in ice to the laboratory to evaluate receptacle maturity under a microscope. Mature receptacles were characterized by the presence of eggs on the receptacle surface. The size and characteristics of male and female receptacles, the sperm release, and the egg release were observed and photographed. The number of conceptacles was counted, and the size of egg and sperm was measured. Tissue slices of male and female receptacles were microphotographed. The culture room temperature was controlled at approximately 20˚C. The culture solution was composed of − 3− −1 filtered natural seawater enriched with NO3 -N and PO4 -P at 3 and 0.3 mg∙L , respectively (the same as the solution below), and was changed at an interval of 2 d. The experiments were carried out in culture chambers under the following constant conditions: photoperiod of 12:12 h and light intensity of 50 μmol photons m−2∙s−1. 2.2. Influencing Factors of Egg Release Well-developed mature male and female receptacles were placed into 250 mL beakers with 200 mL of culture solution to observe the egg release. The total number of female receptacles was 60, and the ratio of male and female receptacles was 1:6. The number of days required for the receptacles to release eggs and the percentage of receptacles releasing eggs at the beginning under different environmental factors were investigated. All mea- surements were carried out on three parallel tests in the following several experiments. Figure 1. The whole plant picture of S. thunbergii. 2575 Z. R. Liang et al. The temperature test was performed by incubating the receptacles at 13, 16, 20, and 23˚C in a temperature- controlled photoincubator (Jiangnan, Co. Ltd., China) at an irradiance of 50 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 (12:12 h light:dark cycle). For the light intensity test, the receptacles were incubated at 200, 100, and 50 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 in a photoincubator at 16˚C (12:12 h light:dark cycle). Photoperiod test was carried out by incubating the receptacles at 15:9 h (15L:9D), 12:12 h (12L:12D), and 9:15 h (9L:15D) light:dark cycles in photoincubators at an irradiance of 50 μmol photons m−2∙s−1 and a temperature of 20˚C. 2.3. Light Saturation and Light Compensation Points of Egg and Young Thalli Light saturation and light compensation points of egg and young thalli were measured using a Clark-type oxy- gen electrode (Hansatech Oxygraph, England) [14]. The light was provided by a halogen lamp. An illuminome- ter (HANNA, Italy) was used to measure the light intensity, and the temperature was maintained constantly by a cooling circulator (F12-ED Refrigerated/Heating Circulator, Germany). Zero oxygen was used in the oxygen electrode chamber with Na2S2O4. Unfertilized eggs and young thalli were collected and seeded into the beakers. A 2 mL aliquot of the cell solu- tion containing eggs or young thalli was transferred to the oxygen electrode chamber, which was magnetically stirred at a speed of 100 r∙min−1. Approximately 200 µL of algal solution was removed from the oxygen elec- trode chamber at a rotor-stirred condition for microscopic counting and length measurements. The number of eggs or young thalli was controlled at approximately 1000 individuals in the chamber. Photosynthetic rates were measured at 21˚C. The light transmittance of the chamber wall was measured to ca- librate the light intensity. The samples were conditioned at a certain light intensity for approximately 60 min to achieve stability before measurement. Each measurement was accomplished within 10 min, and the linear oxy- gen evolution versus time was recorded. The light saturation and light compensation points of the eggs were measured. The light saturation and compensation points of the young thalli were measured at 2 and 3 d postferti- lization. Three measurements were performed each time, and the readings were averaged. 2.4. Statistics The data were expressed as means ± SD. T-test was used to compare the difference between the control and the treatments at each time point. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the difference between treatments, and multiple comparisons were performed with Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) method. The significance level was set at 0.05. 3. Results 3.1. Morphologic Observation The mature female and male receptacles of S. thunbergii were dumpy and acerose, respectively (Figure 2). The male and female receptacles had indistinguishable shape in some cases; thus, an immature thallus is impossible to be identified. Conceptacles were distributed in each receptacle. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the tissue slice and microphotograph of male and female receptacles of S. thunbergii, respectively. The female conceptacle was characterized by its large, bulb-shaped oogonia with egg or egg progenitor cells inside (Figure 4). Matured egg and sperm discharged outside the frond through the conceptacle ostiole. Eggs adhered to the outer side of the conceptacle ostiole awaiting fertilization, and zygotes fell off the receptacle and developed into young sporo- phytes. Figure 5 shows a mature female receptacle with unfallen eggs. Different sizes of conceptacle ostiole appeared in mature female conceptacle. The top of an ostiole was smaller than other parts with a size between 130 and 155 µm. The size of a mature male conceptacle ostiole also varied (approximately 84 µm to 123 µm), with small size at the top and large size at the mid-bottom.